Pen-Elayne on the Web

Blogathon 2003 - Post #3
Pen-Elayne For Your Thoughts - BATMAN #615 and #616
Hush storyline, Chapters 8 ("The Dead") and 9 ("The Assassins")

Writer: Jeph Loeb
Penciller: Jim Lee
Inker: Scott Williams
Letterer: Richard Starkings
Colorist: James Sinclair
Associate Editor: Michael Wright
Editor: Bob Schreck
Published by DC Comics

Here's what I thought...

Warning: May Be Spoilers Ahead

There's a good reason this is usually the #1 selling comic book each month, and that reason can mostly be summed up in six letters - either "the art" or "Jim Lee," take your pick. Lee and Williams (whose inks fit Lee's pencils like a glove) set each issue's grim-but-fascinating tone from the get-go, immediately drawing you into the storyline and not letting go. Loeb seems to be the kind of writer who's often only as good as his artists and here, as with his collaborations with Tim Sale, he absolutely rises to the task and matches the visuals perfectly. All you need to know is stated succinctly on the first page - chapter 8 begins, "Tommy Elliot is dead" and throughout the issue you see flashbacks of who he was in life and what he meant to the title character, bringing you into the narrative even if you hadn't read the previous seven chapters. Chapter 9's second panel continues the theme, featuring captions that tell us in Batman's first-person voice, "For months now, someone has been... on the attack. Recruiting and educating my oldest foes in new and deadly ways." This compact deftness, and the feeling of solid character progression throughout for both protagonists and antagonists, goes a long way towards the ongoing storyline not seeming "dragged out" overlong. Nothing feels cookie-cutter, and yet for all its outside-the-box thinking and almost total absence of side borders (what some call "widescreen" art) it's at its heart very traditional storytelling. The flashbacks are stylized but never confusing, and you identify throughout with the good guys and want them to triumph, even as you're swept up in the mystery and intrigue and romance. Yes, romance - at the end of "The Dead" Batman reveals his secret identity of Bruce Wayne to sometime-thief (and now a pseudo-member of the "Bat family") Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman. One hopes, given the quality of this series, such development "sticks" for awhile vis a vis the other Bat-books, but these things are never guarantees given the vagaries of shared-world publishing among so many creators with differing notions. Sinclair's coloring does seem to follow Lee's and Williams' light source choices most of the time rather than working against them; and Starkings' lettering, while a bit eye-straining here and there (I do miss the larger font sizes of old!), doesn't call attention to itself overmuch. Just a really solid effort all around, and I look forward to more.

So, what did y'all think?